As i have written quite extensively in VLR about the show, i just leave you here with some pictures of details, which can be seen as some extra illustrations to the text in VLR.
Venegas (1986) draws her inspiration from the stories, techniques and subjects, not just from her home country Mexico, but also from Asia and Africa.
Alejandra Venegas
Alejandra Venegas
Beumer (1982), as usual, concentrates more on the materials themselves.
Alejandra Venegas
Beumer’s recent work, presented in this exhibition, is made of bark-cloth, which he collected and processed in Serawak (Malaysian Borneo).
Paul Beumer
Paul Beumer
When i saw this kind of work for the first time i must admit i was a bit put off by the somewhat stiff and rectangular nature of these collage-like works.
Alejandra Venegas
On the other hand, it probably takes time to get used to the language of certain materials and the way they speak for themselves, as the works seem quite convincing to me by now.
Paul Beumer
Paul Beumer
In the end Beumer always seems to find a way in which the material and a certain, often traditional, technique can completely speak for themselves, while presenting them in an intuitive and lyrical manner.
Paul Beumer
That’s how he came with the present series of works, partly based on the colours of the different times of the day.
Paul Beumer
Paul Beumer
The combination with Venegas’ work is a particularly happy one, as she clearly found her way in another very basic technique: woodworking and painting.
Alejandra Venegas
While in Beumer’s work the medium becomes the story, in Venegas’ work the story may be born from the medium or may intermingle with the medium.
Paul Beumer
Alejandra Venegas
In that way her colourful wooden reliefs become objects of wonder.
Marwan Bassiouni
In the front space of the gallery Marwan Bassiouni (1985) shows some photographs from his series Prayer Rug Selfies.
Having a moral judgement and ventilating it publicly needs some humility towards the facts, and some knowledge about the shortcomings of one’s own perceptions.
Henriette von Muenchhausen
Henriette von Muenchhausen
Henriette von Muenchhausen
Henriette von Muenchhausen
Having said that, especially in these corona days, no one, not even you and me, escape this lack of humility and knowledge.
Roeland Tweelinckx
Roeland Tweelinckx
Alexandra Brand
Alexandra Brand
Lauwer’s present pop up exhibition tries to use the power of art (or imagination, if you want) to help the viewer strike a new balance between perception and the facts.
Alexandra Brand
Henriette von Muenchhausen
Henriette von Muenchhausen
Henriette von Muenchhausen
Roeland Tweelinckx
Certainly, there is anxiety in the exhibition but there is also wonder, humour and fun.
Roeland Tweelinckx
Henriette von Muenchhausen
Alexandra Brand
Roeland Tweelinckx
In spite of the seemingly less than ideal circumstances of the show, Lauwer makes the three exhibiting artists Henriette von Muenchhausen (1973), Roeland Tweelinckx (1970) and Alexandra Brand (1969) stand firm amid anything you can put on your wall.
Roeland Tweelinckx
Now that you’ve come here: subscribe to Villa Next Door (top right of the page)!
Those who know me, know that i am not enthusiastic about either sports or religious gatherings, yet, i did take part in something like that in an event, a spin-off of the Kifl the Kid Salon, presently at Billytown (Click here to see an earlier report about the Kifl the Kid Salon) .
At Kifl the Kid Salon spontaneous events are being organised and one of them was Robbin Heykers Vogelclub (“Robbin Heyker’s Birding Club”), featuring Arjan Dwarshuis, the man who saw 6852 different bird species in 2016 during a world trip.
The event was in two parts; a film evening featuring Arjan’s Big Year, in which you can see Dwarshuis crisscrossing the world, watching and counting birds, anything feathered in between ostriches and hummingbirds.
The second part was a birding excursion at Meijendel, the coastal dunes near The Hague, led by Dwarshuis.
It was an exceptionally good morning to see bird migration, described by Dwarshuis as “just as spectacular as the big game migration in Eastern Africa,” except that few people in this country seem to be aware of that.
With a moderate south-eastern wind, conditions were very good according to Dwarshuis, which proved to be true.
Dwarshuis surely made us – a small bunch of artists and art-bugs for whom looking and seeing (watching) are cardinal activities – see loads of birds, especially in the sky, but also in the scrubs and in the water, usually unseen, even by artists and the like.
It was indeed extraordinarily exceptional, especially in the beginning of the morning when the sky was full of thousands of migrating birds.
What did we see?
Well, we saw: redwing (loads), fieldfare (loads), song thrush (loads), mistle thrush, blackbird, robin, stonechat, chaffinch, brambling, hawfinch, greenfinch, siskin,
goldfinch, linnet, redpoll, reed bunting, tree sparrow, great tit, blue tit, long-tailed tit,
great crested grebe, little grebe, greylag goose, white-fronted goose, pink-footed goose,
cormorant, and i probably missed out a few.
Without being a conspiracy thinker, one can easily state that that very morning the sky was full of spectacular phenomenon but unseen by those who are not woke.
Now that you’ve come here: subscribe to Villa Next Door (top right of the page)!
The usual suburban kind of apartment block, as they were built in the 1970s, 80s and 90s.
Not particularly beautiful or ugly, they usually look pretty social and sometimes with a touch of elegance; great feature of this one is of course its use of balconies as replacements of gardens.
During the heyday of Modernism, geometry was thought to be a means to keep too much individual emotion out of art.
Diet SaylerDiet SaylerDiet Sayler
Basic geometry was seen as having enough potential of its own to convey a strong aesthetic statement.
Diet Sayler
Diet Sayler
However, the self was constantly itching under the artist’s skins.
Ewerdt HilgemannEwerdt Hilgemann
Artists like painter Diet Sayler (1939) and sculptor Ewerdt Hilgemann (1938) – both presently showing their work at PARTS project – broke with the un-individual idea of geometric, concrete art.
Ewerdt HilgemannEwerdt HilgemannDiet Sayler
Sayler allowed colour back into his works (and not just a little), while using so-called basic elements for the shapes in his compositions, configuring them with the help of coincidence.
Diet SaylerEwerdt Hilgemann
As such his works have become both quasi-objective and almost lyrical with their intense colours.
Ewerdt Hilgemann
Ewerdt Hilgemann
Hilgemann saw the potential of imploding a perfect three-dimensional shape into a crumpled character.
Both artists have since then attained an individual craftsmanship based on experience and intuition.
Diet Sayler
Ewerdt Hilgemann
Ewerdt Hilgemann
Personally, i’d say they brought brilliance to their work by letting the colours and the reflections shine invitingly, a brilliance much needed in this sombre autumn.
Ewerdt Hilgemann
Now that you’ve come here: subscribe to Villa Next Door (top right of the page)!
“Who are we?” is one of the most essential questions for young artists, especially if they have decided to co-operate.
Co-operation itself is the best strategy in a multi-disciplined art world with compulsorily multi-tasking young artists.
Werner van der Zwan (1995), Ruben Golstein (1994) and Eva Sigurðardóttir (1993), freshly graduated artists from different art academies, met each other at …ism and decided to co-operate in an art project over there.
The result was on show last weekend and it had become a multi-facetted installation varying from poetic dreams, visual thoughts about the place and neighbourhood, to radical noise.
The front room was full of reminiscences of billiards, while in other places objects started moving and making noise by themselves.
Except for being in one space there didn’t seem to be a common programme, but as long as each artist can add his/her own voice to the whole, which happened here, there is no problem.
Now that you’ve come here: subscribe to Villa Next Door (top right of the page)!
It stressed the exceptional position of The Hague in the field of the arts, but it also indicated that that doesn’t happen just like that.
Bertus Gerssen
Marjolijn van der Meij (with a nod to George Stubbs)
Less than thirty years ago The Hague was a provincial backwater.
Ton Schuttelaar
Annemieke Louwerens
Bringing it where it is now, has taken a lot of energy.
Sogo Show
Ingrid Rollema
However, art life in The Hague is still very vulnerable.
Nies Vooijs
Zeger Reyers
Main point is that it should be recognised that the development of a blossoming artistic life in The Hague is up to its artists and its artists’ initiatives and not to the local authorities’ hobbies.
Machiel van Soest
Rens Krikhaar
Geeske Harting
Therefore it is heart warming to see artists trying to take back the initiative.
Mekhila Harrison
Riet Vooijs
Of course this can only be a beginning, and in itself the event was modest in almost everything.
Paul de Jong
Jordan Herregraven
Tejo Philips
175 works of art were put up for sale, each for E300 or less, and so the works on show were small.
Erik-Jan Ligtvoet
Erik-Jan Ligtvoet
However, what it lacked in dimensions, it won in diversity.
Harold de Bree
Gino Anthonisse
This diversity is one of the best assets of art life in The Hague.
Hein van Liempd
Wieteke Heldens
Here i show you thirty of the works i found most interesting and best photographable.
Zahar Bondar
Topp & Dubio
A very personal choice of course, but that’s the risk of reading Villa Next Door.
Jeannette Slütter
Ilona Senghore
Jessica de Wolf
By the way, while writing these words, extra measures were announced by the government to cope with the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, so, the title of the open letter that accompanied the event Don’t forget the artists! has become even more urgent.
Now that you’ve come here: subscribe to Villa Next Door (top right of the page)!
In vain of course, and quite inefficient as the Wolpertinger doesn’t exist.
Joeri Woudstra
So what have these three darn boys been doing?
Joeri Woudstra
Well, what have you been doing of late?
Joeri Woudstra
And have you done it efficiently?
Thijs Jaeger, Rik Laging, Joeri Woudstra
If so, how much time did you save with it to be able to be inefficient?
Thijs Jaeger, Rik Laging, Joeri Woudstra
Thijs Jaeger, Rik Laging, Joeri Woudstra
Or are you efficient in your inefficiency as well?
Thijs Jaeger, Rik Laging, Joeri Woudstra
Anyway, you have at least one thing in common with Jaeger, Laging and Woudstra: the fact that you didn’t find the Wolpertinger either.
Rik Laging
But then, they give you prove that they have at least the Wolpertinger in their minds.
Rik Laging
Having a Wolpertinger in your mind may be highly inefficient, but having the impossible in your mind may bring you further than having your mind dictated by other’s efficiency.
Rik Laging
But who says your mind is being dictated by other’s efficiency?
Thijs Jaeger
Never mind, and have a look at Wolpertinger at Heden.
Thijs Jaeger
Thijs Jaeger, Rik Laging
(Click here and here for two other present exhibitions at Heden)
Rik Laging
Now that you’ve come here: subscribe to Villa Next Door (top right of the page)!
